KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board Maritime Centre of Excellence
Which is mandated to be a global leader in bather protection against shark while minimising environmental impact, thus promoting tourism.
KZNSB hosts informative lessons on information about sharks and maritime life. We have lessons and sermons about the biology of sharks and other maritime life, these videos assist our clients in having a vast knowledge of what is happening in the deep.
The event was an outdoor set-up with a beautiful ocean view on the background. The stakeholders set up gazebos and feather banners for exhibition. The
With Mr. Mbambo during the Africa Travel INDABA Breakfast Meeting at Elangeni Hotel on the 03rd May 2022, were Acting CEO for SA Tourism,
We are finding out that, disregarding our values [ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBLE] has not only a social, but also an extremely negative, economic impact, hence we have
Warm water (19-26°C), a mild, subtropical climate and wave-lapped beaches have long attracted visitors and residents to the sea at Durban and the adjacent coastline of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Unfortunately the pleasure of such visits has occasionally been marred by shark attack.
Although shark attacks are relatively infrequent, they attract a high level of media response due to the emotional response of the public. Given that South Africa is well known for its warm climate, beach culture, the popularity of water related activities and has 2,500 km of coastline it is perhaps not surprising that is has a relatively high rate of shark attack.
Records of shark attacks in South Africa have been recorded from as early as the mid 1800’s. However, it was only after the establishment of the International Shark attack file (ISAF) in 1958, that shark attacks were investigated in detail. The KZN Sharks Board was appointed the official curator of the South African shark attack file in 1974.
Shark attacks can be categorised as either unprovoked, or provoked. An unprovoked attack is defined in the ISAF as incidents where an attack on a live human occurs in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark e.g. swimming or surfing. Provoked attacks occur when a human initiates interaction with a shark in some way. These include instances when divers are bitten after harassing or trying to touch sharks, attacks on spearfishers, attacks on people attempting to feed sharks, bites occurring while unhooking or removing a shark from a fishing net, and so forth. These provoked attacks have been excluded from analysis contained in this report.
Globally the number of shark attacks is increasing, a trend which is attributed to a greater number of people entering the water. A similar trend is evident is South Africa, which has experienced 394 recorded unprovoked attacks, the majority of which have occurred since the 1940’s. Of these 90 have been fatal.
During the first half of the 20th century, in South Africa, the majority of shark attacks were recorded off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal. Indeed, it was the high number of attacks and the collapse of the local tourism industry, which resulted in the deployment of nets to capture sharks. Since the deployment of the first nets off Durban, and expansion of the KZN Sharks Board operations the number of attacks has continually decreased along the KZN coastline. This is in marked contrast, to both the Eastern and Western Capes where attacks have continued to increase. These contrasting trends clearly highlight the effectiveness of the KZN Sharks Board bather protection program in providing protection from shark attack.
Since the inception of bather protection gear there have been only 27 attacks, none of which have been fatal, in the 67 years since their inception. Indeed, the serious injury at a protected beach involved a surfer at Umtentweni who were bitten on the leg by a great white in 1999. Without the KZN Sharks Board programme it is highly likely that the shark population would slowly increase along the KZN coastline, eventually resulting in a fatal shark attack and economic catastrophe to the local tourism industry.
Most of the shark nets deployed by the KZNSB are 214m long and 6m deep and are secured at each end by two 35kg anchors; all have a stretched mesh of 51cm. The nets are laid in two parallel rows approximately 400m offshore and in water depths of 10-14m.
An initiative to reduce the total amount of nets was commenced in 1999, as part of ongoing efforts to minimise the catch of harmless animal. This involved the replacement of nets with drumlines. A drumline consists of a large, anchored float (which was originally a drum) from which a single baited hook is suspended. Most beaches are protected either by two nets or by one net and four drumlines, but the quantity of gear varies from beach to beach. By 2019, the KZNSB had deployed 165 drums along the coast, reducing the length of nets to 15km ( representing an almost 70% reduction). A total of 76 drumlines were introduced at 17 beaches along the Hibiscus Coast in February 2007.
The drumlines replaced almost 50% (a total of 4km) of the nets, which were in place. The idea of introducing drumlines is to reduce the bycatch of harmless non-shark species such as whales, dolphins and turtles, which are accidently caught in the nets. The capture of non-target species has been reduced by 47,5% with the installation of these drumlines. Drumlines have also been installed at Richards Bay and were introduced to all protected beaches in the KwaDukuza Municipality in November 2015. A total of 107 drumlines are currently in off the KZN coastline.
Shark nets do not form a complete barrier and sharks can swim over, under or around the ends of the nets. Neither, of course, do drumlines form a physical barrier. Both types of equipment function by reducing shark numbers in the vicinity of protected beaches, thereby lowering the probability of encounters between sharks and people at those beaches. The nets may have a limited barrier effect as well, but the fact that about one-third of the catch is caught on the shoreward side of the nets is evidence that such an effect is only partial. Drumlines are a recent introduction on the KwaZulu-Natal coast but their successful use in Queensland, Australia, indicates that the fishing effect of the protective equipment is of primary importance.
The KZNSB boat crews service the nets and drumlines, every Monday through Friday, weather permitting. Only four of the 15 skiboats operate from harbours, with three boats based at Durban harbour and the forth at Richards Bay. All the other craft have to launch though the often heavy surf to reach the shark safety gear.
It was recognised before shark netting was introduced to the beaches of Sydney, Australia, in 1937 that only a complete enclosure would provide complete protection from shark attacks. Despite this, the safety record of shark nets off the coasts of New South Wales, Queensland (Australia) and KwaZulu-Natal, together with that of drumlines off Queensland has been very good. At Durban, from 1943 until the installation of nets in 1952, there were seven fatal attacks. Since the installation of nets there have been no fatalities at Durban and no incidents resulting in serious injury.
At KwaZulu-Natal’s other protected beaches, from 1940 until most of those beaches were first netted in the 1960s, there were 16 fatal attacks and 11 resulting in serious injury. In the three decades since nets were installed there have been no fatal attacks at those beaches and only four resulting in serious injury. Two of these occurred at Amanzimtoti, in 1974 and 1975, the third at Ballito in 1980 and the most recent at Umtentweni in 1999. It has been argued that the Amanzimtoti incidents represent only a partial failure of shark nets in that parts of the installation were out of order at the time and bathing and surfing had been banned. Such has been their success that a generation of KwaZulu-Natal residents has grown up in an environment virtually free from the risk of shark attack.
The KwaZulu-Natal coastline is often subject to large swells and strong currents, which may result either in the nets becoming entangled or the nets or drumlines being dragged out of position. The boat crews make every effort to rectify the problem when they service the equipment in the early morning but heavy seas and strong winds may make this impossible. Tangled or displaced equipment may no longer be able to fish effectively for sharks and, in the interests of public safety, the municipality responsible for that particular beach is advised to temporarily ban bathing and surfing until such time as the shark safety gear has been restored.
Bathing may be banned even though shark safety is in order. This may take place if a large shark is sighted in the immediate vicinity of the bathing area or following the stranding of a whale or whale shark in the area, an event that is likely to attract sharks inshore. Lifeguards may also ban bathing during periods of very rough swells and if strong rip currents may affect bather safety.
Traditionally bathing has always been banned when the nets have been removed for the annual Sardine Run. This still occurs at a small number of localities, where discretionary bathing (see below) has not been accepted by the local authorities.
Discretionary bathing was introduced in the mid-1990s to allow people to swim and surf during the annual Sardine Run. At this time of year almost all the nets at beaches south of Durban are out of the water to avoid heavy mortalities of sharks and dolphins that follow the sardines. Although there are more sharks in the coastal waters of southern KwaZulu-Natal in winter than at any other time of the year, records from the period prior to the introduction of shark nets reveal a very low incidence of shark attack. In the past, pressure from the tourist industry often resulted in hasty reinstallation of shark nets during the Sardine Run. This frequently proved disastrous, killing large numbers of sharks and dolphins.
The advent of discretionary bathing has enabled the KZNSB to keep nets out of the water for as long as two months, thereby minimising the chances of large-scale mortalities. Unfortunately not all local authorities have accepted discretionary bathing and prefer to continue to ban bathing.